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Eras · The 1960s

1966 in music

Who ruled 1966? The Beatles was Artist of the Year on the Billboard Hot 100 and The Beach Boys on the UK Singles Chart. Every #1 song of 1966, the biggest songs and the top artists.

Billboard Hot 100

The Beatles portrait

Artist of the Year 1966

The Beatles

17 crowns · 20 weeks among the top five artists · Era Power 124

Top artists of 1966
#ArtistEra PowerCrownsTop-five weeks
1The Beatles1241720
2The Lovin' Spoonful111114
3The Rolling Stones104314
4The Beach Boys98114
5The Supremes94211
6The Mamas & The Papas9358
7Simon & Garfunkel89010
8Herman's Hermits8704
9Gary Lewis And The Playboys7604
10Johnny Rivers7119

UK Singles Chart

The Beach Boys portrait

Artist of the Year 1966

The Beach Boys

2 crowns · 17 weeks among the top five artists · Era Power 118

Top artists of 1966
#ArtistEra PowerCrownsTop-five weeks
1The Beach Boys118217
2Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich10106
3Small Faces8919
4The Spencer Davis Group89112
5The Troggs89113
6The Kinks8829
7Dusty Springfield8513
8Cilla Black8001
9The Beatles79615
10The Hollies7808

Artist of the Year and the rankings are the ChartReign Power model: the artist with the most chart power over the year, not the most #1s. Crowns are weeks crowned Artist of the Week. How it works